Nickel, What is it & why is everyone after it?

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If you take the element nickel and look at what it is exactly and why everyone is after it all of a sodden. We start to see why. It is used in a number of products today and we do not even know it.

Nickel resists corrosion and is used to plate other metals to protect them. Nichrome is an alloy of nickel and chromium with small amounts of silicon, manganese and iron. Because nickel increases an alloy's resistance to corrosion and its ability to withstand extreme temperatures, equipment and parts made of nickel-bearing alloys are often used in harsh environments, such as those in chemical plants, petroleum refineries, jet engines, power generation facilities, and offshore installations. Medical equipment, cookware, and cutlery are often made of stainless steel because it is easy to clean and sterilize.

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Nickel was first identified as a unique element In the 1600s, German miners searching for copper in the Ore Mountains came upon a previously unknown nickel ore (known today as nickel arsenide or niccolite) — a pale brownish-red rock of nickel and arsenic. the miners thought they'd discovered another copper ore and attempted to extract ore but the rocks did not produce any copper. The miners blamed "Nickel", a mischievous demon in German mythology, for playing a prank on them and began calling the ore kupfernickel, translated as "copper demon."

Some people are sensitive to nickel and may develop contact dermatitis. It is of the iron group and it takes on a high polish.

Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt. A pupil of Georg Brandt, the chemist and mineralogist who discovered cobalt, Cronstedt would eventually become known as one of the founders of modern mineralogy. Cronstedt set out to discover the proper technique for extracting copper from the curious ore. In 1751, he succeeded in making this discovery.

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Nickel is one of four elements that are ferromagnetic around room temperature. It is actually recovered through extractive metallurgy. Samarium and neodymium in alloys with cobalt have been used to fabricate very strong rare-earth magnets. The production to make these magnets cost a lot since the raw alloy must be ground down to powder. Then it is pressed into the desired shape and then sintered to make a durable solid. These kinds of magnets are used in high quality microphones.

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Nickel in jet engines: Nickel alloys are used in the turbine blades and other parts of jet engines where temperature can reach 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures can reach 40 atmospheres. The illustration is from NASA.gov.

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Nickel is mined all around the world like cobalt is with the largest mines in these areas of the world. As of July 21st, 2020 these are the top nickle producing mines.

1. Indonesia - 800,000 MT

2. Philippines - 420,000 MT

3. Russia - 270,000 MT

4. New Caledonia - 220,000 MT

5. Australia - 180,000 MT

6. Canada - 180,000 MT

7. China - 110,000 MT

8. Brazil - 67,000 MT

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NickelOxide ores (laterites) leached by H2SO4, NiS+CoS precipitated by H2S, treatment in a smelter or by hydrometallurgy. Sulfide ore smelted to Ni3S2+Cu2S, slow cooling, separation by flotation, nickel sulfide converted to crude metal, refined by carbonyl process. Also NiO may be obtained, dissolved in acid and electrowinning.

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Electrowinning is most often used to recover gold and silver from eluates produced by the elution of activated carbon.

Vale is the biggest mining company of nickel in the world. A look at their website they have moved to trying to mine nickle in a more clean way then before. I cover all this and more in my show you can watch here. I also cover how China is threatening to cut off the export of rare earth metals. This has been an intresting dig into lithium-ion batteries. Please continue to follow me as we go into this topic further and see what else we can dig up that is out there.